I've occasionally used terms like "the greed spell," and talked about how the world of The Matrix is basically a true world (and not entirely in the context of the direct application of Baudrillard). And, sort of arriving the homeland after a clarifying few years in places like Bosnia and Serbia, I am seeing the country with a stranger's eyes. The most disturbing thing is the malice freely commixed with the greed and craven nature, as if it were a necessary ingredient of the pie. Add the implication of entitlement, and you have basically the national stance after the last generation.
The most peculiar thing is that they seem to think it rational. So perhaps further discoveries await me in the shared rationality of this Bluebeard's Castle of the lost colony.
"O Scotland, Scotland..."